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April 13, 2017

Retirement plans are complicated creatures to administer so it perhaps is not surprising that the process of determining the beneficiary of a deceased participant can present its own set of challenges and, if things go awry, expose a plan to paying twice for the same benefit.

These risks were recently highlighted in an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision decided in the aftermath of the Supreme Court case of Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan. In that 2009 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a beneficiary designation naming a spouse had to be given effect even though the spouse had subsequently waived her interest in any of her husband’s retirement benefits in a divorce agreement.

In the 11th Circuit case, Ruiz v. Publix Super Markets, the question was whether a deceased participant’s prior designation of her niece and nephew as beneficiaries would trump the participant’s considerable efforts to change that designation shortly before her death. In deciding the case upon Publix’s motion for summary judgment, the Court assumed as true statements from the deposition of Arlene Ruiz, the partner of the deceased participant, who was asserting a right to the benefits as the newly intended beneficiary of Ms. Ruiz. According to the deposition, Ms. Ruiz spoke with a Publix representative who advised her that the beneficiary designation could be changed if the participant wrote a letter and delivered it to Publix indicating the new person she wanted to be her beneficiary and that person’s Social Security number. She was advised that such a letter had to be signed and dated.

The instructions provided by the Publix representative were contrary to a card system maintained by Publix especially designed for changes in beneficiary designations. Ms. Ruiz alleged that the Publix representative advised her that including a beneficiary designation change card with her correspondence was not necessary. Following the instructions of the Publix representative, Ms. Ruiz signed a letter following the instructions provided to her and included one of the Publix beneficiary designation change cards that contained the same pertinent information as the letter with the exception that the participant, Ms. Rizo, did not sign the card. Instead, on that card, she simply referenced her accompanying correspondence.

Faced with these facts, the Court concluded that it was clear that Ms. Rizo intended to change her beneficiary but that she did not strictly comply with the directions contained in the plan’s summary plan description for how to change a beneficiary designation. The issue for decision, according to the Court, was whether the equitable doctrine of substantial compliance required a ruling in favor of Ms. Ruiz. The doctrine of substantial compliance would give effect to a beneficiary designation where a participant evidenced his or her intent to make a change and made discernible attempts to effectuate the change. The Court concluded that the doctrine of substantial compliance did not survive the Supreme Court decision in Kennedy given the Supreme Court’s emphasis on the duty of a plan administrator to act in accordance with the plan documents.

The 11th Circuit decision should be helpful to plan administrators, although it highlights (i) the necessity of having a clearly stated process for changing beneficiary designations, (ii) for requiring that participants follow those procedures, and (iii) for being consistent in the administration of those procedures.

On the other hand, consistently applied administrative procedures will not necessarily solve all of a plan administrator’s issues with beneficiary designations. Apart from failed or incomplete efforts to change designations, we have encountered a number of thorny situations raising the question of who is the rightful beneficiary, including divorces, simultaneous deaths, multiple spouses, and beneficiaries as murderers of their benefactors. With these situations in mind, plan sponsors may wish to consider some of the following practices and additions to plan language in anticipation of these situations:

Giving frequent written reminders to participants about their beneficiary designations

Resoliciting updated beneficiary designations from participants on a periodic basis

Adopting a rule providing for the revocation of spousal designations upon divorce

Adopting a rule specifying a presumption of survival in the event of the simultaneous death of a participant and beneficiary

Adopting a rule that voids a beneficiary designation naming a person who is convicted of the murder of the participant

While state law may address some of these situations, ERISA preemption muddies those waters and adopting a plan rule should avoid any debate over the applicability of a state law. Another helpful procedural provision to consider is a freeze on the distribution of a participant’s account where there is a dispute over the rightful beneficiary.

Where a dispute among beneficiary claimants appears insoluble, filing an interpleader action in federal court may be the only definitive way to resolve the dispute without exposing the plan to the possibility of having to pay twice for the same benefit.

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